Our favourite mistakes

Do errors make things better? As far as the most popular movies of the recent past go, they have got the highest number of ?mistakes? in them.

Accidents must happen, but do errors make things better? As far as movies go, the most popular, big-budget movies of the recent past have got the highest number of ‘mistakes’ in them. The two Pirates of the Caribbean movies top the list with 352 mistakes. Casino Royale, Troy, the Lord of the Rings trilogy and other flicks — most of them box office winners — appear to be the lowest in terms of attention to details. Closer home, let’s not forget the blunder of choosing Ice-warya Rai to play Umrao.

JP Dutta of the above-mentioned flaw will hopefully live and learn. A perfectly chiselled face, it seems, is not enough to distract the audience from the fact that what he sought to pass off as Lucknow had an uncanny resemblance to Rajasthan. Audiences for Pirates and Troy were more forgiving — or perhaps not too fussy about seeking perfection in these movies. Or maybe, it was the sight of Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt that kept them from noticing crew members wandering around the sets in costumes and props inappropriate for the movies they were in (a cowboy hat and sunglasses in Pirates and a walkie-talkie in Troy!).

But then, who cares? As long as a movie follows the perfect formula — for Hollywood, according to a British researcher, it’s 30 per cent action, 17 per cent comedy, 13 per cent ‘good vs evil’, 12 per cent romance, 10 per cent special effects, 10 per cent plot and 8 per cent music — the flawed entertainment should keep us enthralled for a solid two hours.